Difference between simple den and complex den
Answers
Answer:
Im only an intermediate level german speaker but maybe I can help.
First point is that in German, unlike English, nouns have genders (like in Spanish). Therefore, when you are naming objects, the particle "The" gets translated to die, der, das depending on the gender.
In English you say the house, the dog, the cat. In German:
Der is the masculine article, dog is masculine so "the dog" becomes "Der Hund".
Die is the feminine article of nouns, and cat is a feminine noun so "the cat" becomes "Die Katze".
It is also the article for plurals, so the plural of Hund (masculine) is "die Hunde".
Finally das, it is the neutral article (unlike Spanish). House is a neutral gender noun and so "the house" becomes "Das Haus".
(Note: in German, nouns are always capitalized)
(Note 2: Gender of animals has nothing to do with the sex of a particular animal. The generic cat is feminine unless you want to specify a masculine cat, then it becomes "der Kater".)
There are some hints about whether a noun is feminine, masculine or neutral (if it ends in E it is most likely feminine, Latin words tend to be neutral etc) but the best way to go about it is to learn every word with the article already to really engrave it in your memory.
The second point is declinations, German articles change depending on the case the previous examples refer to the nominative case (just naming objects), in the accusative case (when you can ask what or whom) the masculine article changes from "der" to "den", and the other two remain the same.
"The cake" is masculine "der Kuchen" and in the accusative case:
"You ate the cake"
"Du hast den Kuchen gegessen"
There are more cases in which the articles change but I'll stop with these so it doesn't get too confusing.
Explanation: